U.S. Seeks $144 Million in Laundered Nigerian Oil Funds

Former Nigerian petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke answers a question following a speech in Houston in a March 2014 file photo.
Photo:
Associated Press

U.S. prosecutors filed a civil complaint seeking to seize $144 million in assets, including a $50 million condominium and an $80 million yacht, it says are the proceeds of corruption in Nigeria.

According to the complaint, Nigerian businessmen Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore conspired to pay bribes to the country's former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in exchange for her influence to steer oil contracts to companies they owned.

The proceeds of those contracts were then laundered into the U.S., said the complaint, and were used to buy a condo in One57, one of New York's most expensive buildings, and to purchase the yacht known as Galactica Star.

"The U.S. is not a safe haven for the proceeds of corruption," said Kenneth A. Blanco, an acting assistant attorney general, in a statement.

Representatives of the Nigerian businessmen couldn't be located. Mr. Omokore is on trial in Nigeria and charges were dropped against Mr. Aluko, according to local media reports. Ms. Alison-Madueke, who was charged with money laundering in April in Nigeria in an election-bribery scandal, couldn't be reached.

The civil complaint is filed against the assets involved in the case. It was brought by the U.S. government as part of its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which seeks to return the spoils of stolen state assets parked in the U.S and has been used to target assets linked to corruption in Malaysia, Uzbekistan, South Korea and elsewhere.

Prosecutors say the two businessmen funded the oil minister's lavish lifestyle, including by purchasing millions of dollars in real estate in and around London for her and her family members and renovating and furnishing the homes with millions of dollars worth of furniture, artwork and other items bought in Houston. In exchange, prosecutors say, she directed a subsidiary of Nigeria's state oil company to award contracts to two shell companies they owned.

Despite providing only a fraction of the financing called for under the contracts and failing to meet some their obligations the companies were allowed to lift and sell more than $1.5 billion of Nigerian oil, stated the complaint, alleging they then used a series of shell companies to launder a portion of that money in the U.S.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@wsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @srubenfeld.